How We Think of Time Depends on the Language We Use For It

Time is often thought of as the fourth dimension. Once an object has length, width, and depth, it also exists over time. We talk about time, well, all the time, but since we operate in the here and now, we often use three-dimensional language. If you speak English, you probably know that the future is ahead and the past is behind us. Timelines go from the past on the left to the present (and sometimes the future) on the right. Whether the future is looking up or looking down has nothing to do with when or how fast it comes. 

But that isn't always the case. If your first language is something besides English, you may think of the flow of time differently, and use different words for its direction. Since time is the fourth dimension, it honestly has no 3D "direction" at all. Yet we adapt language to communicate the concept anyway. There's no "right" way to do this, outside of being aware of the time orientation of the person you're talking to. Dr. Erica Brozovsky explains how some other cultures talk about the flow of time.